Wallboards of drywall material are finding increased use in residential and commercial construction. As compared to other types of wall construction, such as lath and plaster, walls can be much more quickly and economically constructed of drywall material. However, because drywall material is fabricated in large, thin sheets, rooms constructed of drywall material have square corners. A typical drywall corner comprises two perpendicular drywall sheets nailed through a metallic corner strip to a frame member. A thick layer of a putty-like material, commonly referred to as drywall mud or topping compound, is then placed over the nailed areas of the drywall. When this material drys, the corner is sanded down to provide the corner with a smooth finish. These present drywall construction techniques and materials make implementation of anything but a square drywall corner very difficult.
The artistic capabilities of drywall construction would be greatly enhanced if curved drywall corners of both the concave and convex variety could be quickly and easily fabricated. Curved drywall corners would find wide use in both domestic and commercial drywall installations. The prior art generally does not disclose any corner strip for drywall sheets that provides a curved corner. Consequently, curved corners are very expensive to fabricate with present drywall construction techniques, as each corner must be hand made. While the prior art discloses slightly rounded drywall corner strips, no corner strips for drywall construction have been disclosed having a more substantial radius on the order of several inches.
Furthermore, as discussed above, the corner strips providing the square corner have to be subsequently covered with topping compound as part of the process of finishing the corner. The drywall corners of the prior art are not generally prefabricated with drywall tape, which would allow the quick finishing of a corner by simply folding the tape onto the drywall sheets and then lightly coating the tape with the compound. Such a prefabrication would greatly increase the speed of the drywall corner production.
A further limitation of the drywall corners found in the prior art is that they generally are designed to affix the drywall sheets to a frame member by nailing and the like. The nailing process consumes valuable time and the speed of installation of drywall corners would be greatly increased if the nailing could be eliminated. In particular, a corner unit which could be simply glued to the drywall sheet would also greatly increase the speed of fabrication of drywall corners.
Finally, most of the corner strips used in drywall construction are fabricated of sheet metal or the like, which can involve a stamping process. A corner strip of inexpensive material such as plastic aluminum, which could be fabricated by less expensive techniques such as extruding, would also help reduce construction costs and would therefore enhance the use of drywall material for room construction.
Accordingly, it is the principal object of the curved corners in rooms constructed of wallboard material such as drywall.
It is another object of this invention to allow both concave and convex corners to be constructed in installations utilizing drywall material.
It is still another object of this invention to allow curved corners to be created simply and inexpensively.
It is a further object of this invention to allow the quick and rapid installation of curved corners in rooms constructed of drywall material.
It is another object of this invention to eliminate the use of nails and the like to affix corner strips to drywall sheets.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide a curved drywall corner prefabricated with drywall tape, thereby speeding the installation of the corner strip and eliminating the use of nails and the like to affix the strip to a frame member.
It is still another object of this invention to provide a curved corner strip for use with drywall and the like which would provide a substantial radius.
It is another object of this invention to provide a corner strip which may be economically constructed of extruded material.